Remember before Samsung announced the Galaxy Gear smartwatch an executive described it as a concept device? The quote was, “We will be introducing a new wearable concept device called Galaxy Gear,” and was supplied by Lee Young-hee in an interview with the Korea Times.
Now, this could be interpreted in several ways, but a new rumor has popped up which makes us think the word concept could have been used in its truest sense.
The new rumor comes from another Korean source, Daum.net, and says Samsung has the sequel to the Galaxy Gear well under way, and its release could come as soon as CES 2014 in January or Mobile World Congress a month later. The speed with which the follow-up could come is surprising, but not when you hear about the product itself.
Instead of being solely compatible with Samsung devices running Android 4.3 (only the Note 3 and the Note 10.1 2014 Edition at the moment), the next Gear should have far wider compatibility, perhaps even embracing Android hardware from other brands. The price may also be dropped, however expect a few features to disappear for this to happen. It won’t be a bad thing, as the $300 price tag is high for a device like the Gear.
The report’s source is listed only as an industry insider, so it’s far from official, but a cheaper Galaxy Gear which works with other Android hardware certainly makes the current Gear sound like a product used to test the public’s reaction to a smartwatch. Lose the camera and $100 off the price, make it work with an Xperia or HTC phone, and it’ll be closer to what we hoped to see last month. You never know, those who buy one may go for a Samsung smartphone next time around too.
Only time will tell if the Galaxy Gear 2 becomes something more official so soon, and with CES 2014 scheduled for January 7 and Mobile World Congress on February 24, there’s a few months to go until we find out for sure.
http://www.digitaltrends.com
By Andy Boxall